Music and journalism by Kevin Pasman

Album of the Week 21-2017: Seikima-II – Living Legend

According to Seikima-II’s own mythology, the band had to disband one second before the end of the 20th century. Luckily, they did not do so before releasing one more brilliant heavy metal album. Despite their reputation as an excellent heavy metal band, this was still a little surprising, because throughout the nineties, Seikima-II was all over the map stylistically. While they did release one amazing heavy metal album in the shape of ‘Mephistopheles No Shouzou’ during that decade, there were plenty of pop influenced experiments for ‘Living Legend’ to be a pleasant surprise. And one with some excellent songwriting to boot.

Though the break-up after the release of ‘Living Legend’ had already been planned, it does not sound like Seikima-II was running out of ideas here. Sure, there is a fairly large amount of filler tracks on here – there is a flawless 50 minute album hidden in this great 70 minute record – but even the majority of those are quite enjoyable. While songs like the modern, highly rhythmic ’20 Seiki Kyoushikyoku’, the glossy ‘From Here To Eternity’ or the simple, anthemic ‘Rock ‘n Renaissance’ are nowhere near “best of” status, they are pleasant enough to stay away from the skip button. In fact, only the overlong ‘This World Is Hell’ is skipworthy.

Many of the other songs are essential Seikima-II material, with the odd song even reaching masterpiece status. The brilliantly structured ‘Go Ahead!’ is definitely one of those. The song moves from a bombastic intro to relatively subdued verses and a straight up progressive metal middle section. It is the perfect closing statement to a farewell record and somewhat reminiscent of Queen’s more epic songs. Opening track ‘Heavy Metal Is Dead’ is another classic, doing everything in its power to disprove its title with its memorable main riff and powerful chorus.

Other great songs include the classy, elegant heavy metal of ‘Century Of The Raising Arms’ – which would not have sounded out of place on ‘Mephistopheles No Shouzou’ – and the simple, rocking fun of ‘Revolution Has Come’. ‘Silence Or Violence?’ brings Loudness’ classic ‘Soldier Of Fortune’ to mind and is every bit as enjoyable, while ‘Gloria Gloria’ is a successful attempt at the big, sweeping midtempo epic that ‘This World Is Hell’ sadly fails to be. The production on ‘Living Legend’ is relatively dry, but it is hardly bothersome, especially because it serves as a perfect juxtaposition to the overproduced nature of its predecessor ‘Move’.

Calling your final studio album ‘Living Legend’ and saying that heavy metal is dead after you call it quits may come across as shameless megalomania, but personally, I have always assumed there was something decidedly tongue-in-cheeky about Seikima-II’s over the top and at times ridiculous mythology. Also, releasing records like these does give a band some credit to make claims like these. Over the last decade and a half, the band frequently reunited for live shows and compilations of re-recordings, but a new album remains to be written. And maybe that is for the best, because ‘Living Legend’ is a fitting farewell, as it is a legacy to two decades of excellent hard rock and heavy metal.

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Being a musician and a journalist, I felt the need to set up something to keep people informed about interesting publications and work-in-progress for both of these functions. I guess I am what people call a muso, so some of my ramblings may seem interesting to me, but will seem the contrary to you. Feel free to let me know in any case. I hope you will enjoy what I post here.